Mackenzie King Diaries
William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was the longest-serving Prime Minister of Canada, kept a daily journal from 1893, when he was an 18-year-old student at the University of Toronto, until just a few days before he died in 1950. For more than 20 of those years Mackenzie King was Prime Minister of Canada, and his diaries, about 30,000 pages, provide a valuable and first-hand political and social history of Canada during the time Mackenzie King was Prime Minister.
Mackenzie King used his diaries as a course in self-improvement, to record of events of the day, and as a “real companion and friend” as he said in his diary in 1902.
How Mackenzie King Diaries Became Public
In his will, Mackenzie King asked that his diaries be destroyed, except for the parts that he had indicated should be published or used. His literary executors found that he had never indicated which parts of the diaries he wanted made public. The diaries gradually went from private documents into public documents and by 1980 all of the diaries were open and they had been published on microfiche.
Search the Mackenzie King Diaries Online
Public access to the diaries was still limited because they were massive, difficult to read on microfiche, and had no index. That has now changed. Library and Archives Canada has published the Mackenzie King diaries online at The Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King. You can browse through the diaries by date or a keyword.
Increasingly, William Lyon Mackenzie King is viewed as one of Canada’s greatest Prime Ministers. However, King’s accomplishments are not restricted to the realm of politics. Throughout his entire adult life, King was a dedicated – one might even say driven – writer. Although King was an exceedingly prolific correspondent and the author of numerous books and articles, by far his most important literary project was the ongoing, daily writing of his diary, which began in 1893, while he was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, and ended in 1950, a few days before his death at his beloved Kingsmere Estate. Taken together, the diary texts comprise nearly 30,000 pages (more than 7,500,000 words) and arguably represent one of Canada’s greatest literary achievements. According to the noted critic Robert Fulford, King’s diary “might turn out to be the only Canadian work of our century that someone will look at in 500 years.”
A Real Companion and Friend: The Diary of William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1893-1950 website serves to introduce King’s extensive diary to contemporary readers. This background section of the website is intended to serve as an introduction, exploring these remarkable texts, both as revealing personal narratives and as an invaluable record of Canada’s political and social history during six formative and crucial decades. Furthermore, it examines the little-known history of the diary as an archival document, including the decision to save the texts for posterity (contrary to King’s stated wishes).
Now that this Canadian archival treasure has been made available in its entirety on the internet, countless readers around the world will be privy to the private thoughts and observations that Mackenzie King religiously confided to his diary. Here one encounters not only the compelling account of a single – and singular – life, but also the story of Canada in the first half of the twentieth century, and its difficult voyage to nationhood, much of it under the guidance of King’s conflicted but canny leadership.